F&C fixed income overhaul sees Fatima Luis and three others exit

Wealth Manager can reveal F&C Asset Management has overhauled its fixed income arm resulting in the departure of Fatima Luis and three other bond team members.

The move is designed to integrate the F&C high yield and Thames River credit teams, which are run along very different philosophies.

In a note seen by Wealth Manager, F&C has told clients it intends to reposition the fixed income business across the following key areas: global government bonds, investment grade credit, global credit opportunities, emerging market debt and convertible bonds.

The integration will be overseen by head of global credit opportunities Keith Patton, who joined the F&C multi-strategy team in May 2012 from UBS Wealth Management, where he was managing director and global head of fixed income.

F&C said the review is designed to achieve a fully-integrated and substantial credit resource under a single structure, while retaining flexibility and specialisation. It also sees a number of synergy benefits arising from integrating the two teams.

In the note F&C said: ‘The reorganisation of our investment resource allows us to offer a range of fixed Income capabilities that are relevant to our clients now and will be positioned to adapt to the evolving needs of clients in the coming years. These capabilities are organised to meet our clients wide ranging needs across a varying range of risk appetites, return and income objective.

‘The changes to our structure have been designed taking full account of the evolving market environment, and input from our key stakeholders, namely our clients and our staff. This will ensure that we can deliver performance on existing mandates and continue to grow the business.’

Separately Thames River head of global credit, Steve Drew and fellow team member Brett Golledge has resigned from the firm, along with F&C head of credit research Peter Stage.

They trio handed in their notices before the repositioning of the business was announced to pursue other opportunities. Simon Holmes will assume control of Drew’s portfolios, which includes the Thames River Global High Yield fund.

F&C stressed its commitment to fixed income following the restructure, which reduces the number of investment professionals within the team to 48 with responsibility for £58.5 billion in assets under management.

‘Fixed Income remains a strategic focus and we would not hesitate to add new staff as required to support the business,’ the firm said.

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